An Unexpected Meeting
by Emma Conners
Summary: (completed, short story) Adam runs into his old girlfriend Julie one Christmas Eve in a grocery store.


Hey, this is an improved version (a lot better, it makes much more sense if you read the old one) of a short story I wrote a while ago. Please read and tell me what you think! It's based on the song Same Old Lang Syne.  
  
Also, when I use this ~ it refers to what the person is thinking.  
  
An Unexpected Meeting  
  
He walked into the grocery store and wiped the snowflakes off of his coat. It was Christmas Eve, and Adam was stranded in Chicago. He was on his way home to Minnesota, but the airport had been shut down until the next day due to the weather conditions. It was nearly midnight. And by now he'd reconciled with the fact that he was going to spend Christmas alone in a hotel room. ~Don't feel sorry for yourself.~ He grabbed a basket and walked into the frozen food section. He picked up some cinnamon rolls. ~Mom always makes these on Christmas morning.~ He hadn't seen anyone else out yet that night, but then he heard someone else down the aisle. It was a girl with fairly long blonde hair. He looked at her. ~I wonder what she's doing here on Christmas Eve?~ He looked down again. The woman had her back to him, but then turned around to grab sausage links.  
  
~Oh my god.~ Adam's breathe caught in his chest. He couldn't exhale. He couldn't believe it. It was... it had to be. He approached the woman. He touched her shoulder.  
  
She turned around and looked at him. She didn't recognize him at frist. But then, she looked closer. She looked into all two familiar blue eyes.  
  
"Adam," she whispered softly.  
  
"Julie."  
  
She leaned in to hug him and in the process, she spilled the contents of her purse.  
  
"Oops." She started laughing. Adam laughed too. He knelt down to help her pick up random accessories that fell from her purse. When Adam stopped laughing, he realized Julie was crying. She smiled through her tears. She put her purse on the floor.  
  
"It's great to see you," she said holding on to him. They pulled apart.  
  
"I was just going to check out."  
  
"Me too." Adam then realized the obvious untruthfulness of his statement. He had only one item in his basket. She smiled at him. "Shall we go together?"  
  
He walked with her to the checkout stand. Her food was bagged. Adam and Julie hadn't said a word since they'd been in the frozen foods section. They were both embarrassed that after everything they'd been through together, they didn't even have anything to say to each other. Not even comments on the weather.  
  
"Man, it's cold out there, isn't it?"  
  
Julie looked over at Adam and smiled. She could tell that they'd been thinking the same things. It had always been like that.  
  
"Well, I'm used to it. I live here."  
  
"Really? Since when?"  
  
"Since I got married."  
  
Adam froze. What was he supposed to say?  
  
"Oh. Well how do you like it here?" He tried to subtly change the subject.  
  
Julie knew him too well. "It's comfortable." She was silent for a moment. "Adam, don't you want to hear anything about my husband?"  
  
He could barely bring himself to look her in the eyes. He swallowed. "Of course I do. So what does he do for a living?"  
  
"He's a chemical engineer."  
  
Adam cracked a small smile. "Must be hard to be married to such an idiot, huh?"  
  
She laughed. His corny sense of humor always did get to her.  
  
"So, do you love him?"  
  
Julie looked away from Adam. ~What nerve! How can he ask me that, he has no right to...~ Adam interrupted her thoughts.  
  
"You wanted me to ask about him. So don't even think that I didn't have a right to ask you that. It's a fair question."  
  
Julie's heart pounded. ~Of course I don't love him Adam. You were the only love of my life.~  
  
"You read my mind." She ran her hand through her hair, in an attempt to concentrate on what she was going to say next. "He's a good provider. I live in a beautiful home. I'm safe and I'm surrounded by friends. He makes a wonderful living. He's smart and genuine. He's a very decent man."  
  
"But you don't love him?"  
  
This time she did not look away. She stared directly into his eyes. "Come on. Let's go have a drink."  
  
Adam understood her. She was content where she was. She wasn't passionately in love, but sometimes it just didn't work out between people, no matter how much they loved each other.  
  
"That'd be great."  
  
Adam followed Julie into her car. In their excitement to see each other, they'd forgotten it was Christmas Eve. No bars were open. Instead, they went back to the grocery store and bought a six-pack. They both sat in Julie's car, each drinking a beer, talking as they always did.  
  
Julie told Adam about David. He was delayed at an airport in Cleveland. He was coming home from a convention.  
  
Adam told Julie about his hockey team and how the traveling had been. He talked about the girls he'd dated. Julie asked Adam why he didn't have someone yet, but he just slowly smiled in response and said, "no one will have me."  
  
Julie said she'd seen him on TV. She assumed he was doing quite well. He explained that he still loved hockey, but the traveling was becoming draining.  
  
They toasted to their lives. After they finished off the beer, they sat in silence.  
  
Adam looked over at Julie.  
  
"You know, time has been good to you. Your eyes are still as blue."  
  
She wasn't sure what kind of reaction he expected. She made eyes contact with him for a brief second. They were each quiet for five minutes.  
  
"Well, it's late. I should be getting home."  
  
"Yeah," he replied.  
  
Adam opened the passenger side door and began to get out.  
  
"Adam."  
  
He turned around. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. A kiss which reflected love, admiration and respect. Adam closed his eyes in an attempt to make the moment last forever.  
  
Julie started her car. Adam snapped out of his daze. He turned his back to her and finally pulled his left foot out of her car. He shut the door.  
  
"I love you," he whispered softly.  
  
Julie sat in her car and wanted to leave so Adam wouldn't see the single tear that had escaped her. But she wasn't crying out of sadness. She was so happy to have seen Adam, to finally have some closure on their life together.  
  
He finally saw her car turn so it was out of sight. His heart ached. It ached the same way it had after the very first time he'd broken up with Julie. Of course then, he was only nineteen years old. Now, he was older, more mature, and had some life experience. He was going to learn to handle things better. Julie had. She'd found happiness in her new life, not love, but happiness. Who ever said you have to be in love to be happy?  
  
Adam turned to walk to his car. He looked up at the sky. It was still snowing hard. "Figures," he muttered to himself. He got into his car and started the engine. He fumbled to get a CD into this CD player. He looked at the case in an attempted to find a song to listen to. When he looked up, he noticed something. It was no longer snowing, it was raining.  
  
~Is that supposed to be a sign?~ He shrugged his shoulders at his own thought.  
  
~It is a sign. It means, move on. Follow her example. If she can be happy, you can too.~ He smiled. He was very glad he'd bumped into Julie that night. ~Maybe it was even fate.~  
  
He smiled to himself, and then drove off.  
  
THE END 


End file.
